Mayhem Festival 2010 breakdown...

So folks...I took the day off yesterday and went to the Rockstar Mayhem Festival in St. Louis at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater [the old Riverport for you "old schoolers" like myself] (well...technically Maryland Heights, MO...but you get the idea) with good friends Dan and Laura. Took today off too, and it's a good thing I did because man, am I drained! I had a great time and saw some really cool bands and met some awesome people. ...and I got a rockin' sunburn! :) It was hotter than Hades out there!!

For those of you who don't know, the Mayhem Festival started 3 years ago. It's an all day metal festival. Kinda like Lollapalooza used to be back in the 90's. It all starts in the early afternoon and goes all day until late night. Tons of bands who play all day back-to-back, dozens of vendors, record companies, etc setup througout the place. They even have this thing called "Metal Mulisha" which is a bunch of dudes who do motocross stunts and crap on thier dirtbikes. Pretty cool stuff. You can check out more about them here http://www.metalmulisha.com/.

We got there early and were able to hop ahead in line since Dan has his cell phone through Verizon. Sweet! As soon as we get in to the area where the Silver Star Stage and Jagermeister Stage are setup, the first band, 3 Inches of Blood starts playing. I really dug them...old school "viking metal". Good stuff! The other "side stage" bands were as follows:

Psychostick (comedy metal band from Tempe, AZ...actually quite funny!)

In This Moment -- Dan REALLY hated them. They were OK for me...nothing Earth-shattering.

Winds of Plague -- Just as horrible as they were when I saw them open up for Danzig during the 2008 "Blackest of the Black" tour. Not good stuff.

Shadows Fall -- Really good band...I dug them!

Norma Jean -- Good stuff...I liked them!

Chimaira -- Honestly, I didn't listen to much of thier set as we were heading into line for the Rob Zombie meet-n-greet at this time. More on that later. I saw 'em open for Danzig once too. They were just "OK" for me then, and just "OK" for me this time around as well.

Atreyu -- Pretty decent band. They actually covered "You Give Love A Bad Name" by Bon Jovi. Goddammit...I can't get away from that band even at at fucking METAL FESTIVAL!!! Arrrgh!!

Hatebreed -- Who doesn't like Hatebreed? Well, me I guess. They actually did a really good job. I'm just not into them, that's all. Another one of those bands I saw open for Danzig once. I didn't see much of thier set as we were doing the whole Korn meet-n-greet at this time. Again, more on that below.

So...about these meet-n-greets -- Super cool that they did this. Actually, if you wanted to, you could do meet-n-greets with ALL of the bands that played that day! They all had their own tents setup througout the venue doing signings and stuff at various times. I knew ahead of time that Rob Zombie and Korn were doing meet-n-greets and that you had to buy each band's new record at the Roadrunner Records booth and as long as you did, you got a guaranteed spot in line to meet 'em. So...as soon as we got into the venue, this was the first place we hit. ...AND...they had Rob's new record on VINYL and it was actually $5.00 cheaper than the CD. Go figure. If you know me well, you know how much I LOVE vinyl, so I totally snagged up the LP and skipped on the CD. VERY excited about that!!

So...we watch a couple of bands and then at 4:30 the man himself and his current bandmates all file into the Roadrunner booth and do thier thing. When I made my way up to get my record signed, I got a smile and a nod from Mr. Zombie and he greeted me with a kind "Hey, man...nice to see ya!". I shook the dude's hand and told him a simple "thanks, man". More behind that "thanks" than I'm sure he knows. What do you say to a person who has been a part of your creative life for so long? Everything from listening to the first White Zombie album, "La Sexorcisto" WAAAY back in the day and getting hooked immediately, to all of his crazy and inspiring artwork, to the movies he has created, etc. All I could really do is sum it up in just one word -- "thanks". It was all over in the blink of an eye. I walked away with my record signed by the entire band, and got to meet one of my "heroes". VERY cool!!!

After the Zombie signing was done, next up was the Korn meet-n-greet. Now, I'm not a big Korn fan, but Laura IS! So...she snagged up their new record (on vinyl as well!) and filed in line for that. I think 3 members were there -- Jonathan Davis (singer), Ray Luzier (drummer), and one other dude. POSSIBLY "Fieldy" (bassist)? She got to meet the guys and got her record signed, and after that we headed over to the main stage where our official seats were. Main stage bands were as follows:

Five Finger Death Punch -- Great stage setup and theme (anti-war, but VERY supportive of our armed forces). Just one of those bands I'm not all that into. They played well, and HARD. Just not my "cup of tea".

Lamb Of God -- I REALLY liked these guys!! VERY intense set and again carried on with a lot of anti-war stuff like Five Finger Death Punch did, but just as above...VERY supportive of our armed forces. VERY heavy stuff and VERY, VERY FAST!!

Rob Zombie -- Well...I probably don't need to say much here, as the name really says it all. It was truly amazing to FINALLY get to see this man perform. Incredible stage setup with clips from classic horror movies playing behind the band as they were performing, fire, huge robots, martians, and zombies walking about during some of the songs...just a really amazing set!!!

Korn -- FANTASIC stage setup. Picture is at the top of this blog. Jonathan's voice was incredible and the band was ON! Ray is an amazing drummer and had just an ungodly kit! My only complaint is that they did absolutely ZERO talking to the crowd. They just played. As they were finishing up thier set and went into the song, "Blind" (one of the few Korn songs I really dig), the skies opened up and it starting POURING!! We decided to take off towards the care before it got too bad, and well...we were just too damn late!

People, by the time we got to the car, all three of us were soaked from head to toe. It was like we all jumped into a pool with our clothes on. Yeah...that bad. Dan was worried about my seats getting wet. I told him I really don't care about that, and am more worried about just getting outta there before it got SUPER bad. By the way, Dan...the seats are just fine! We got out on the highway and it was pouring SO hard that you couldn't even see in front of you. Cars were doing 35-40 MPH. I was just following the red tail lights in front of me with no idea where I was really going. Once we edged into Illinois, the rain stopped and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way.

All in all it was a SUPER fun day, and as long as the bands are good, I'd like to do it again next year! So, here I sit today with my lovely sunburn (actually it really doesn't hurt too bad. Looks worse than it really is) and my signed Zombie record, Zombie T, and Zombie buttons for the pup. Thanks again, Dan and Laura for those buttons! You might be asking yourself why the hell I'd give buttons to my dog. Well...he has a "punk rock hoodie" that my sister got him years ago. I try to grab a button at whatever shows I go to to add to it. He has quite the little collection so far. Yeah, I'm retarded, I know.

Later on people!

-Antwon